Prime Minister Robert Golob and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Robert Tajani have pledged ever closer cooperation between the two governments on migration, energy and joint efforts in the Western Balkans.

In an effort to raise the level of communication, promote respectful dialogue and eliminate hate speech, Prime Minister Robert Golob established the Strategic Council for the Prevention of Hate Speech, which held its inaugural meeting today.

With 332 million, the United States of America presents an important market with many opportunities for the Slovenian economy and tourism. It can take several years for companies to successfully penetrate the US market, and Slovenia as a country can open doors through increased promotion.

State Secretary Marko Štucin today hosted the Polish Minister for the EU, Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk in Ljubljana. In addition to bilateral relations, the talks focused on topical European and international issues.

Lake Bled, an idyllic lake with an island in the north-west of Slovenia, has made the list of 25 of the most beautiful places in the world published by CNN Travel last week, alongside destinations like the Svalbard Islands in Norway and the UK’s Lake District.

The Government has adopted a basis for the preparation of a proposal for amendments to the Recovery and Resilience Plan to address the reduction in available funding and the objectives of the REPowerEU plan to reduce dependence on Russian energy. It will be followed by coordination with the European Commission and other stakeholders and the preparation of a proposal to adapt the plan.

At an extraordinary session of the National Assembly, Tanja Fajon, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, presented the reasons for the rejection of the resolution that would classify Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. She reiterated Slovenia’s strong support for Ukraine and emphasised that, instead of creating division and separation, all efforts should be directed towards ending Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

Priority Area Coordinators (PAC) of the EU Strategy for the Danube region (EUSDR) met in Maribor. At the meeting, there were 12 EUSDR thematic teams from 14 countries of the region, representatives of the Danube Region Programme, the European Commission, the Danube Youth Council (DYC) and the secretariat of the EUSDR, the Danube Strategy Point. The event was organised by Slovenian EUSDR Presidency with the support of the Danube Strategy Point and the University of Maribor.

At today's regular session, the Government took note of the starting points, priorities and dynamics of the negotiations with the representative trade unions of the public sector. It also adopted the starting points for the adjustment of the Recovery and Resilience Plan and decided to make available EUR 50 million in SID Bank’s loans to companies affected by the energy crisis.

State Secretary for the Establishment of Dialogue with Civil Society and Coordination of Citizens’ Initiatives Maksimiljana Polak and Head of the Office of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Dejan Süč met with representatives of the Society for the Protection of Horses and Other Animals and other representatives of animal advocates.

Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon met with representatives of the Slovenian national minority in Italy to exchange information and views on current issues relating to the minority, ahead of the visit by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Italian Republic, Antonio Tajani, to Slovenia on Friday, 17 March. The meeting was also attended by Minister for Slovenians Abroad Matej Arčon.

Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon handed over two Ljubljana Passenger Transport buses, which the Municipality of Ljubljana donated to Ukraine, to the Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of Slovenia, Andriy Taran. “Today we continue our assistance to Ukraine, this time, too, supporting the most vulnerable in the war – children and young people –, so that they can get to school more safely in these difficult circumstances.”

In an effort to adopt balanced and sustainable systemic measures, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Robert Golob, established the Strategic Council for Macroeconomic Issues, which held its inaugural meeting today.

At the meetings of the Government committees, the Government responded to the adopted conclusions of the National Council on the issue of the growing scope of environmentally sensitive areas of permanent grassland, included in the Development Programmes Plan for 2023-2026 a new project titled Construction of the central kitchen in the Nova Gorica General Hospital and increased the value of the project titled Logistics Centre of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

In the framework of the quadrilateral meeting between Slovenia, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, Acting Director-General of the Directorate for International Law and Protection of Interests, Dr Marko Rakovec, hosted the meeting of legal advisers. This was the first meeting at the level of legal advisers in the quadrilateral format, which has been held at deputy foreign ministers level since 2011.

Prime Minister Robert Golob hosted the fifth meeting of coalition deputies and Government representatives at Brdo pri Kranju. The coalition continued the discussion on important systemic changes that it has set to implement in this term of office.

Minister Dr Emilija Stojmenova Duh opened her chairmanship of the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, the most important global event on the impact of information and communication technologies on the development of society.

The Ministry of Finance has conducted an analysis and completed the groundwork for tax system reorganisation in order to make it more transparent, simple and balanced. We also wish to raise awareness about the need for a new social consensus regarding the reform package and the level of prosperity we are aiming for.

At today's correspondence session, the Government adopted a bill on amendments to the Employment, Self-employment and Work of Foreigners Act and will send it to the National Assembly for consideration under fast-track procedure.

On 13 March, Prime Minister Dr Robert Golob paid an official bilateral visit to Sarajevo. The Prime Minister’s visit follows the European Council’s decision in December to grant Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) candidate status for membership of the European Union. It was Slovenia, including Prime Minister Golob, which actively endeavoured to confirm the geostrategic decision of the European Council last year.